Session Summaries
Session 1: the kids are let out of their last day of school at George Washington Carver Middle School, whereupon Alex notices suspicious spraypaint claiming "The gate is opening" that no one else is able to see. When asking the group about it, the Velveteen Abbott notices more saying "Where are you Basil?" The kid regroup to discuss what this means, to be interrupted at the mention of Basil by Jack Blackguard, a boy about their age who claims to be on the road, traveling the country with his trusty monster Basil fighting a cult that threatens to take the monsters of children. He explains they've come here trying to resurrect the Ur Monster, a titanic beast that threatens to demolish all life if let out from its prison in the Underworld, an endless, ever-changing maze. The kids agree to work with him to find Basil, Alex's senses locating him in the arms of a statue of Gilgamesh at the ancient Sumerian exhibit at the museum. The kids sneak in with Jack, who tries to free Basil but is ambushed by Dagon, who creates a portal to the Underworld to trap them away. He attempts to banish the other kids as well, but fails in doing so, only cursing them to be banished in 2 months unless they overthrow the plan for the Ur Monster's revival. The kids' monsters beat up and interrogate Dagon, who explains everything he knows about the cult's workings and plans, and that he cannot bring Jack back. However, a small portal opens long enough for Jack to throw out a librarybook on ancient Sumeria, and with it several postcards with his signature and vague missions pertaining to the locations of each postcard. Session 2: '''the group gathers supplies, excuses, and a driver for their road trip to save the world. -They pick up Henry and Quiln to join the team from his father's work site, his father quickly approving of the scheme to let the boy have fun this summer rather than work. Quiln watched everybody -Kate convinces her mother it's better for her than camp, so long as she updates her on what she's doing and learning on the way. Sir Clanker is excited to go on a quest -Jake called his mom to update her during her business trip, promising to call. Razorface is delighted at the reality tv-like nature of this trip -Chris forgot what she was doing and had dinner before her grandmother walked in, heard her story, and offered to provide the alibi that she was visiting a friend of hers with her -Alex pleaded his sister Tracy into helping, somewhat reluctant even after promise to provide some money and answer any 3 questions with his powers for her. Alex made some quick trips with his portals and all-seeing eyes to gather some lost and found funds. The kids are introduced to Tracy, pile into the car, and play rock music and annoy eachother until reaching Sunny Vale. They realize there is a faint anti-magic aura on the cheerful city, one that reduces the chance of anyone even noticing them and their monsters in action, excusing them as halucinations, earthquakes, etc. Alex tracks down a tentacle monster attacking a parking lot, smashing cars randomly until the Sentai Rangers show up, The kids equip various colored masks and rush to the scene to try to aid and impress the rangers. The Sentai Rangers rather brutally kill the monster into goo with their various monster-themed weapons, impressing and scaring the kids to various degrees. Alex is able to deduce the monster is evil, and that the rangers are highschoolers who were given magical weapons by their master Zoltron, a wizard who has gone missing. When questioned, the rangers seem to disagree on how long he has been missing, claiming to be busy with schoolwork and fighting evil ("each and every week" *Justice Pose*). '''Session 3: '''The kids deduce that Zoltron has been missing for several weeks via the Sentai Rangers, who disperse to resume their secret identities. They relay that their master Zoltron runs an antique shop Pandora's Knicknacks, where he sometimes trains them or teaches them to better control their tempers, violence, and powers. Alex tracks Zoltron to a hidden room at an old storage warehouse, finding a supposed swapmeet there. Quiln spies inside and confirms that they are actually mummy-like, ancient corrupted things in league with the cult, and that Zoltron is indeed inside. The group soundly beats up the goons before releasing Zoltron and summoning the rangers. Zoltron has nothing but praise for them all, which several kids notice as odd because he approves and inquires about the details of the rangers killing the latest monster, despite being clearly an elderly hippy (complete with flower power van and woodstock bumper sticker, and "suspiciously shaped glass cylinders"). Henry notices a waxy, unnatural look to Zoltron's skin, and when offering to wipe it up, Zoltron suddenly panics and insists the kids are in league with the cult. Not buying even that bullshit, Henry unmasks him and finds him to be another cult minion in a magical mask, confessing to wanting to control the rangers for the cult by posing as their master. He explains the real Zoltron is in a corner of the underworld sealed off by the cult, away from the reach of the Ur Monster but guarded by a cult loyalist of some nature. They have no means to get there through the minion, but the Rangers point out that Zoltron taught them that they can hold their weapons together and form a portal to anywhere. Getting late, the kids agree to sleep on it, crashing in a hotel before the rangers decide to help them make the portal tomorrow, where they will have to stay back to hold it open for them to return. '''Session 4: '''the kids enter the portal the next day, entering a far corner of the Underworld the cult is using as a prison. They realize the lights are going out around them, secluding the kids as Eribus, a psychic tormenter, begins attacking the children's psyches and their relationships. Some far better than others, but Chris manages to resist his attempts to scare her and threatens him right back, warding him off so the kids can find Zoltron. Pleased to be out of this place, he escapes with the kids and scolds the Sentai Rangers for not even bothering to look sooner. They bicker back and forth before the rangers storm off, Amber threatening Alex briefly before being hypnotized into thinking she is fighting monsters to vent her anger. The team is given a badge to summon the rangers at will, but leaves a sour taste in their mouths to see them so upset. They seek Zoltron and learn that the rangers were all kids with monsters, though their bonds never formed properly. Their clashing mental mojo would starve the monsters and drive the children mad, so Zoltron did all he could think to do. He forged the monsters into weapons, an apparently agonizing experience for the monsters that made them portable, less intimidating versions of what they were, at the cost of most of the monsters' life force. The kids used them to fight evil and monsters that came to town, though the unbalanced synergy was making them become more unstable; Melvin more reclusive, Roger more an attention-greedy daredevil, Amber more a manipulative cheater, Latika a shut-in perfectionist, and James obsessed with this weightlifting and venting his rage. Zoltron explains he fears the corruption may go too far before long, and he will have to unmake the weapons, removing the piece of the rangers' souls that is the monsters with them. '''Session 5: the kids reason out that if they can get the rangers to put away their weapons by choice, Zoltron can use that moment to zap the weapons with his magic and free them. The group explores their options with the crystal ball back in the Cosmic Mystery Room of Zoltron's, getting varying results before deciding on this plan. The kids approach each ranger with unique warnings and explanations and get them to cast down their weapons: a Sentry metaphor for Melvin, a wood metaphor for James, threats of wrinkles for Amber, an offer to join Roger's band by Tracy if he sets aside his Ranger career, and companionship for Latika. The group bonds with the rangers a bit as Zoltron frees the weak monster spirits (a red cyclops, a pink two-headed snakes, a blue golem, a green skeleton with a cage for a chest, and a lightning yellow tiger), but the lingering bitterness broken off from them attacks the kids as a weapon golem. The kids smash it to bits and the monsters appear long enough to reply "once more" and disappear, suggesting they will help the rangers change one more time to help the kids one day. Session 6: '''the group investigates Sucrose Park, a promising place of sugar, wild rides, high tech fun and games, and limited adult supervision. The kids leave Tracy outside as they enter the park, "investigating" the arcade. On the way they find Cool Rat, the stunt-loving radical rat mascot who seems to perform non-stop tricks, jokes, and one-liners for the kids around. The party is quickly won over by free tickets and a Sucrose Park t-shirt for cheering him on, and when Cool Rat leaves the robot parade, they investigate the arcade to find that there is a genuinely magical t-shirt (that also glows in the dark and has awesome wolves). They set their sights on it, and recognize the laser tag tournament coming up close. '''Session 7: the kids enter the tournament in trios, and despite Cool Rat's involvement (mostly as a whacky target practice), the kids win quite soundly before the other team surrenders. Cool Rat rewards them with a plastic trophy, tickets, and hi-fives before inviting them to the VIP area backstage, informing Chris it was about the disco ball that "fell" inside. Once inside, the kids are all gassed, the monsters fading quickly after, but not before Razorface sends out an SOS to Tracy. The kids come to in the care of Nurse Ratchet, a stiff robotic woman who urges them to choose their new role in their life under Cool Rat. The boys get ninja, cowboy, astronaut, wizard, and race car driver. The girls get princess or ballerina. Chris is quickly outraged by this and bursts out at Ratchett, burning her with The Abbott's cloak and running from a wave of security robots. The monsters come to in the kids' property on a conveyor belt to an incinerator. They maul their way through a wave of robots towards the kids as Quiln scuttles through the vents, Velveteen Abbott simply teleporting to the rescue of the girls. 'Session 8': Jake and Henry tour the barracks with Ratchett before finding the Brain Trust, a giant mutated super brain and head of security and research for Sucrose Park. The kids let Quiln ambush the robot so they can ask the astronauts inside about the Brain Trust, Cool Rat, and the prison. They confess to mostly liking it there, but are urged into missing their parents. As the boys debate with the Brain Trust, Kate manages to find the boys just before Cool Rat bursts in, outraged that they would want to leave. He accuses this on the monsters and attacks them with the Brain Trust activating traps and weapons, but they are both beaten into submission. Cool Rat is held down by Clanker (who also swallows his sunglasses) as he begins to break down crying and pleading for them to stay. The Abbott teleports the children out of the base, some by force, and Tracy has notified the police as the kids try to figure out what to do with Cool Rat. Between Zoltron and Brain Trust, they realize that the robot dopplegangers used to replace the kids are what the cult was after before Cool Rat shooed them away and kept up his guard for spies. The kids determine that Cool Rat is addicted to attention from numerous kids, and that one cannot feed him any more as he rapidly starts to go through withdrawl from his freed kids. Alex sees that his true name was Cool Rad, a robotic monster belonging to a boy in the World War 2 era who became addicted to attention when he followed his boy to school one day. He has donned various costumes, personas, and physical mutilation/transformation to remain popular with kids. This has taken its toll on him as well, as under the costume, his body is a hodgepodge of various robots, creatures, and people. The kids chain him down and walk him through his memories, convincing him that he is still liked as Cool Rad. He returns to his robotic state and destroys the prison levels of the park, freeing the kids and leaving the park as just that. Many tears are had, and Cool Rad intends to maintain the persona of Cool Rat just for the park, while incorporating his actual self in as well. He rewards the kids with the wolf shirt they were after in the park.